A British class action filed in 2024 over Grindr’s data-sharing past is now settled. The company will pay £26M, about $35.1M, to close the case, which centered on how sensitive subscriber details were handled before 2020, when Chinese gaming firm Kunlun still owned the app. Terms were disclosed in a US securities filing on September 2.
More than 10,000 clients were represented in the action, which accused the app of handing personal information, including HIV status, to outside firms for commercial ends such as advertising. Grindr disputes the allegations, and the deal carries no admission of liability, though the company acknowledged the distress and lost trust voiced by UK users from those years.
Payments are scheduled in two £13M installments, one by the end of 2026 and a second by March 31, 2027.
Long before the class action, Grindr’s data practices were under scrutiny in Europe. A 2021 fine from Norway’s data protection authority, later cut to roughly £5.5M, grew out of findings that sensitive profile details flowed to third-party vendors. The research group SINTEF had documented the sharing of HIV status and last-test dates with firms including Apptimize and Localytics back in April 2018, and Grindr’s subsequent court challenge failed last October. Grindr says it rebuilt its privacy program after 2020 and insists the platform remains a safe space for its users.
